Taylor Townsend’s run at the US Open is now over.
Townsend, after a heated run-in and a huge upset to reach the fourth round in New York, fell to Czechia’s Barbora Krejčíková on Sunday afternoon. Krejčíková rallied back after a brutal opening set to grab a 1-6, 7-6 (15-13), 6-3 win over Townsend and reach the quarterfinals. Townsend was attempting to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.
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Townsend erupted in the first set after Krejčíková took the early 1-0 lead. Townsend then rattled off six straight games to take the massive win in no time. She won three of the next four games in the second set, too, and came close to running away with the match. But Krejčíková ended up tying the match 6-6 and forced a tiebreak in an attempt to extend the match.
Townsend had multiple chances to close things out easily in the tiebreak, and even jumped up 6-3 in the extra set. But Krejčíková rallied again to tie it back up, which she did multiple times. The duo even got to 13-13 before Krejčíková finally won two straight points to end the extra set and force a third. Krejčíková saved an incredible seven match points throughout the tiebreak. Had she dropped a single one, Townsend would be moving onto the next round.
Krejčíková jumped up 4-2 in the final set, too, seemingly having stolen all of Townsend’s early-match momentum away. Though Townsend broke her in the seventh game to keep hope alive, the last push came too late. Krejčíková won the next two games to quickly end the match and complete her comeback.
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Krejčíková entered the week ranked No. 62 in the world. The 29-year-old has won two Grand Slam titles in her career, most recently at Wimbledon last summer. She’s reached the quarterfinals at the US Open just one other time in her career back in 2021.
Townsend made it to the Round of 16 after knocking off No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva in the third round on Friday. It was just the third win over a top-10 opponent in Townsend’s career. The American also got into a very heated run-in with fellow doubles star Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday. The Latvian allegedly told her that she had no class or education after their match. Ostapenko apologized on social media on Saturday, and insisted that she was only talking about “tennis etiquette.”
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Townsend entered the US Open ranked No. 139 in the world. She’s never won a WTA singles title or ever reached the final of a tournament, either, despite going on a very dominant run through the sport with doubles partner Kateřina Siniaková. They’ve won both the Australian Open and Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships together this season, and rolled through their opening match together at the US Open.
Though she came wildly close, Townsend’s singles run at the US Open is now over. Krejčíková will now advance instead and go up against No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula next in the quarterfinals. Pegula beat Ann Li 6-1, 6-2 in her fourth-round match on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals, and is coming off a run to the US Open final last year, though she fell to Aryna Sabalenka in the championship match.
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